The big names in casual attire had better watch out! Very soon our kids could be sporting MSD shoes or Dhoni denims, if all goes to plan in the ever-changing world of Indian sports management. Ever-changing because Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni yesterday surpassed batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar in the ad-mad world by inking a whopping Rs 210 crore deal with talent management companies Rhiti Sports Management and Mindscapes that will see them manage his endorsements, brand associations, patents, visibility rights etc for a two-year period. Tendulkar's three-year deal that began in 2006 with sports management firm Iconix is said to be valued at Rs 180 crore.

However, though the plans for Brand Mahi were not very forthcoming, their hints were good enough to suggest that the Brand Mahi could might as well turn the world of personality management turn on its head. "The deal will be about the total branding and licensing of Brand Mahi. The idea is tap into the huge cricketing talent the Indian captain and convert into a beneficial business proposition. There would obviously be a whole lot of promotions and innovations though I would not like to divulge details about the same. It's a trade secret," said Rhiti's marketing president, Sangeet Shirodkar told MiD DAY yesterday.

Speaking on the timing of the multi-crore deal, Shirodkar said: "It could not have been perfectly timed. Mahi is recently married and settled in his personal life. So, now is the right time for him to take the next step in his professional life too."

Endorsements can be quite a bane given a sportsman's fluctuating form, but even that seems to be no problem with Brand Mahi. "I think Dhoni has proved himself in all forms of the game and that's why he stands tall as India's captain in Tests, ODIs as well as Twenty20, so his future could only be bright. Besides, given our cricketers play cricket for almost 300 days a year, there should be no problem if they look at spending time with family as well as cater to their professional side during the remaining two months or so," explained Shirodkar.

'There's no comparison between Dhoni & Sachin'

News of Dhoni's magnanimous deal immediately gave rise to a Sachin vs Dhoni brand debate. However, Shailendra Singh, Managing Director of Percept, another talent management firm that was in the race to sign Dhoni, believes there's no comparison whatsoever between the two cricketers.u00a0 "All those who are comparing Dhoni's deal with that of Sachin have no idea what they are talking about. Sachin signed his deal in 2006 and at that time that was the best sum going by the market conditions. Four years later, history has repeated itself with Dhoni and the money is in keeping with today's inflated times," said Singh.

'Cricket endorsement market nearing saturation'

Another veteran from the world of sports personality management, Neerav Tomar, of Delhi-based Infinity Optimal Solutions, believes Dhoni's deal might just be the beginning of the end of signing cricketers for endorsements. "I think the cricketer endorsements market has almost reached saturation point because from an advertiser/investor's point of view logically there is a very low brand recall value given the number of products a cricketer like Dhoni endorses. I can challenge any end-user to rattle off the 22 brand names that Dhoni is currently associated with. However, if we talk about someone like Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra or Formula One driver Karun Chandhok, then people can instantly recall the two or three brands that they are associated with," explained Tomar, who handles Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar and female boxing world champion Mary Kom among others.u00a0